Nice Natural Stains

Thru the years I have discovered some nice natural stain recipes
but I am always searching for more.
Black or dark Vinegar and Steel wool
Get a jar fill it 3/4 with white vinegar
add about 1/3 of a 0000 steel wool pad- more darker less lighter darkening
Let it sit about 1 week and voila no more steel wool it has melted into th
e vinegar. Test it out on a test piece of your project wood too dark add m
ore vinegar. too light apply more coats after drying.
Black walnut hulls
in the fall I gather Black Walnuts from my favorite tree haunts in the area
If You like this stain Yo may want to gather a lot because you will have to
wait another nut bearing year for more.
Use Leather or latex gloves when harvesting This stuff will really blacke
n your fingers. When you get home and are ready put Your gloves on then tak
e a hammer or some channel lock pliers and begin to take off the outer laye
r the black walnut hull. let them sit around a couple of days in a pan can
or bucket,
Anything other than stainless steel will be permanently stained so use a ve
ssel you won't care about that staining. when they get mushy get an old 2x
3 about 16" long and pound them into fragments. then put them in jars fill
ed half way with the mush.
type #1= I fill the jar with water = nice soft Brown color
Dump it out in a stainless steel pan and heat until near boil let cool and
replace into the jars. Let it sit for a couple of weeks shake up time to t
ime. then strain and discard the solids Now it's ready to use always with l
atex gloves.
type #2= I fill the jar with Household Ammonia = darker rich brown colo
r
Let it sit for a couple of weeks shake up time to time. then strain and dis
card the solids Now it's ready to use always with latex gloves.
Turmeric Stain Golden Yellow
Turmeric and warm water , that's it in a jar about 1 tblspn. to a Skippy p
eanut butter Jar let sit 24 hrs.
The more turmeric , the yellower thin with warm water to go lighter gold
Ready to use. With latex gloves
Welches Grape juice stain as is = Nice Burgundy stain
Red wine Stain depending on the wine nice burgundy colors
Beet juice and Ammonia = rich cherry reds and burgundy colors
Cook your beets discard water or use it for a lighter stain color.
Smash the beets fill Your jar 3/4 and add Household ammonia.
let sit for a week then strain. Ready to use. With latex gloves
Beet juice and water = same as above except save the boiling water and s
mash up the beets let stand 1 week then strain Ready to use. With latex glo
ves.
Saffron¾autiful orangey and goldâ€™s
Tablespoon of saffron to 8 oz. boiling water , let stand 2 days and strain.
More color more saffron, itâ€™s expensive.
Lighter color just add water.
Tobacco and ammonia = rich tan browns
Tobacco and water = mild tan browns
Basically the same as Walnut hulls prep.
More tobacco richer darker.
With all of these stains You will have to wait 24-48 hours of drying time b
efore oiling, sealing or finishing always test color by oiling ,sealing a
nd finishing on your projects scrap wood.
You can also get creative and mix some water to water stains or water to am
monia stains or water to vinegar is o.k.
DO NOT MIX Vinegar and Ammonia mixes itâ€™s a chemical reaction they
neutralize each other.
I invite folks here to share their recipes
Rick B.

Interesting list. I know people who dye yarn using natural dyes, I
wonder if those methods would work with wood, too.
Dried black beans soaked for 24 hours is used for purple.
Onion skins (from yellow onions) for yellow / orange.
Avocado pits for pink.
And there are a lot of mushroom based dyes.
Elijah
------
hasn't personally used them for anything more than easter eggs
Elijah

I tried natural dyes on Easter eggs one year and they came out so-so,
certainly not as a bright as the commercial egg decorating kits.
We tend to go a little overboard when we do eggs, but as long as my mid-
twenties daughters and SWMBO want to do it, I'll keep the tradition alive.
We got a late start this year and only did a dozen, but we got 'em done.

A second follow-up: shortly after I posted earlier, I went out to lunch.
Next to the place I ate was shop full of fancy expensive things,
including this indigo stained wood bowl:

https://i.imgur.com/wlmT5QT.jpg
So there's that. Indigo is somewhat difficult to use for fabric, I
don't know how hard it is with wood. The issue is two-fold: a single
dying is usually not dark enough and the color changes after
exposure to oxygen: the color is green before the oxidation; both of
these make "previewing" the work impossible.
Apparently the bowl above was done by a Japanese indigo master.
Elijah
------
had never before seen indigo dyed (stained) wood

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